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The United Nations Security Council has agreed on fresh sanctions against North Korea over its missile programme. A resolution banning North Korean exports and limiting investments in the country was passed unanimously. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said it was "the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation". Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July, claiming it now had the ability to hit the US. However, experts doubt the capability of the missiles to hit their targets. The tests were condemned by South Korea, Japan and the US, and prompted the drafting of the new UN sanctions. The export of coal, ore and other raw materials to China is one of North Korea's few sources of cash. Estimates say that North Korea exports about $3bn worth of goods each year - and the sanctions could eliminate $1bn of that trade. Earlier this year, China suspended imports of coal to increase pressure on Pyongyang. However, repeated sanctions have so far failed to deter North Korea from continuing with its missile development. China, North Korea's only international ally and a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, voted in favour of the resolution this time. It has often protected Pyongyang from harmful resolutions in the past. The US ambassador said the Security Council had increased the penalty for North Korea's ballistic missile activity "to a whole new level". "Today the Security Council has come together to put the North Korean dictator on notice," Ms Haley told the council after the vote. "North Korea's irresponsible and careless acts have just proved to be costly for the regime." She also praised China's stance. China's ambassador, Liu Jieyi, said the resolution showed that the world was "united in its position regarding the nuclear position on the Korean peninsula". He welcomed US statements that it was not seeking regime change or prioritising the reunification of Korea. But - along with the Russian ambassador - he criticised the US deployment of the Thaad anti-missile system in South Korea, calling for the deployment to be halted. UK ambassador Matthew Rycroft said: "North Korea bears full responsibility for the measures we have enacted today. "It does not have to be this way. North Korea should forgo the path of provocation, forgo the path of further escalation." NORTH-SOUTH MEETING? The isolated state's repeated missile and nuclear weapon tests have been condemned by neighbours in the region. But South Korea says it may hold direct talks with the North during a regional meeting this weekend. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said she was willing to talk to her counterpart from Pyongyang, if the chance "naturally occurs". Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are meeting in Manila in the Philippines. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports "cautious expectations" that Kang Kyung-wha would meet North Korea's Ri Yong-ho on the sidelines of the forum. "If there is an opportunity that naturally occurs, we should talk," Ms Kang told the agency. "I would like to deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers [for talks] aimed at establishing a peace regime." US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also attending the weekend's talks, where North Korea's nuclear programme is expected to be a main topic. As the meeting began, Asean members issued a joint statement saying they had "grave concerns" over North Korea's actions, which "seriously threaten peace".   ....

Published at: 2017-08-06 00:00:04

Justin Gatlin tore up Usain Bolt's farewell script as he stole world 100m gold with the run of his long and controversial career. Bolt was left with only a bronze in his final individual 100m race as 21-year-old Christian Coleman made it a USA one-two. The 35-year-old Gatlin, twice banned for doping, came through almost unnoticed in lane seven in 9.92 seconds, with Coleman's 9.94 holding off the greatest sprinter of all time. Despite struggling for fitness and form in his valedictory season, Bolt had still been favourite to secure his 20th global gold. It was supposed to be Gatlin's year in 2015, when the American went to the World Championships in Beijing on the back of a 28-race unbeaten run. Bolt produced his great miracle to beat him that night in the Bird's Nest, but in the stadium where he won 100m Olympic gold in 2012, he could not provide the perfect ending to a perfect career. Gatlin, Olympic 100m champion in 2004 and double world champion in 2005, had been booed every time he went to his blocks in these championships, his doping past making him the cartoon villain of a troubled sport. After his second positive test, for testosterone in 2006, he avoided a life ban after cooperating with the authorities, accepting an eight-year suspension that was then reduced to four on appeal. That left him free to return to the track, and he was to have his revenge in spectacular style, standing tall and putting a furious finger to his lips as his win stunned the capacity crowd to initial silence. The stadium took a little revenge of their own, chanting, "Usain Bolt! Usain Bolt!" as the result began to sink in. But this was a deserved victory in its execution if not its formation, a last hurrah for a man that many in the sport wished no longer had the chance to compete. Bolt had another poor start, with his reaction time of 0.183 seconds the slowest in the field and 0.05 down on Gatlin. With Coleman out fastest, he was always chasing, yet while we have grown used to seeing him first close down the more explosive starters and then pull away from them, this time the old magic was not there when he called upon it. Bolt, 30, had never previously lost a World Championships 100m final he had started, with the one blemish on his record being his false start in Daegu in 2011. But with the tyro Coleman holding him off, Gatlin powered through in the last 15 metres, maintaining his form through the line as the great champion was for once left powerless. Britain's 21-year-old Reece Prescod was seventh in his first major final, but this will be a night remembered as much for the man who failed to win as the one who did. 'I TUNED OUT THE BOOS' World champion Justin Gatlin: "I tuned it out [the booing] through the rounds and stayed the course. I did what I had to do. The people who love me are here cheering for me and cheering at home. "It is Bolt's last race. It is an amazing occasion. We are rivals on the track but in the warm-down area, we joke and have a good time. The first thing he did was congratulate me and say that I didn't deserve the boos. He is an inspiration." Bronze medallist Usain Bolt: "I tightened up at the end and that is something you should never do. I didn't execute when it mattered. "I am not fully comfortable in those blocks but you have to work with what you have. I can't complain about that. "He [Gatlin] is a great competitor. You have to be at your best against him. I really appreciate competing against him and he is a good person." BBC 5 live commentator Mike Costello: "This will be really difficult for the sport. Russia has been expelled indefinitely from the sport, but Gatlin has been banned twice and here he is winning gold in the most precious event in the sport. "The crowd perhaps ought to be booing the IAAF rather than the athletes." Four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson: "I thought Bolt would be challenged by Coleman not by Gatlin. Bolt was under pressure. He has never really had a great start. He wasn't able to close the gap. "He is grimacing and that is something we have not seen before. You will not find that look in all the archives of Usain Bolt." Olympic champion and world record holder Almaz Ayana put a problematic season behind her to storm to 10,000m gold. Ayana, who set that staggering record a year ago in Rio, threw in a decisive injection of pace at halfway to finish 45 seconds clear of her Ethiopian compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba in 30 minutes 16.33 seconds, with Kenya's Agnes Tirop taking bronze. Luvo Manyonga completed a fairytale triumph in the long jump as his second-round leap of 8.48m took gold from the USA's Jarrion Lawson by four centimetres, as the winner's fellow South African Ruswahl Samaai was third. Manyonga, a former crystal meth addict, celebrated in style after going one better than his silver in Rio. Lithuania's Andrius Gudzius, with a final round of 67.89m, took discus gold from Sweden's Daniel Stahl and the USA's Mason Finley. Britain's Laura Muir qualified impressively for Sunday's 1500m final as she was second in her semi-final. Muir will be joined by compatriot Laura Weightman, who came storming through down the home straight.  ....

Published at: 2017-08-06 00:00:04

Babul Barman Stocks extended the winning streak for the second straight week with high turnover, as investors' appetite for buying large-cap stocks, especially banks, continued to grow. Dealers said the market maintained the gaining momentum riding on the wave of investors' enthusiasm for bank issues, as most of the banks showed their positive earnings for the April-June quarter. During this week, the bank sector posted a significant gain of 4.93 per cent, with seven banks making their way to the top 10 gainers' charts. The seven banks -- Rupali Bank, Eastern Bank, Trust Bank, Premier Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, City Bank and Bank Asia -- gained 16.67 per cent, 15.18 per cent, 13.40 per cent, 13.08 per cent, 11.57 per cent, 9.69 per cent and 9.60 per cent respectively. The bank sector also dominated the turnover chart, contributing 29 per cent turnover to the week's total transactions, followed by textile (14 per cent) and financial institutions (11 per cent). "Stocks from banks have been the driving force to push the index up while stocks from mutual fund, food & allied and services & real estate sectors also attracted buyers," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm. The week featured five trading sessions as usual. The key index of the prime bourse accumulated a gain of 89.12 points in three sessions while remaining two sessions shed 23.74 points. Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), which replaced the DGEN in four-and-a-half-year back, went up by 65.38 points or 1.12 per cent to settle at 5,880. "The positive earnings declaration of several large-cap companies along with dividend declaration of some major stocks could be the reason for such gains in the index," commented LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly market analysis. However, two other indices saw mild corrections. The DS30 index ended down 5.98 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 2,123 while the Shariah Index (DSES) finished 6.02 points, or 0.46 per cent, lower at 1,312. Meanwhile, the port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), closed higher, with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, rose 116 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 11,013. International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said, "Stocks observed a modest gain as the enthusiastic investors showed their buying appetite on banks amid optimism." However, some shaky investors booked quick-gain in the last session of the week following the news that July saw net foreign investment in stocks declining, compared to the previous month, said the stockbroker. The total turnover of the week rose sharply to Tk 53.22 billion on the premier bourse from Tk 31.17 billion in the previous week.  The turnover averaged Tk 10.64 billion a day, nearly 71 per cent higher than the previous week's average of Tk 6.23 billion. "This gain was triggered by the positive movement of banking sector as most of the bank declared satisfactory earnings," said City Capital Resources, a merchant bank. The merchant bank noted that the bank sector contributed 0.55 per cent to total weekly gain of 1.12 per cent. Block trade contributed 1.0 per cent to the total weekly turnover, with stocks like SIBL, Brac Bank, Rahima Food, ACI, IDLC Fiannce and RAK Ceramics dominating the block trade board, the merchant bank said. The total market cap of the DSE also edged up 0.62 per cent, as it was Tk 3,931 billion on the opening day of the week while the figure rose to Tk 3,956 billion on the closing day of the week. LankaBangla Finance topped the week's turnover chart for the two consecutive weeks, with shares of Tk 2.45 billion changing hands, closely followed by City Bank with Tk 2.03 billion, BBS Cables Tk 1.33 billion, C&A Textile Tk 1.25 billion and ONE Bank Tk 1.15 billion. Dulamia Cotton Spinning Mills, a 'Z' category company, was the week's highest gainer, posting 47 per cent gain, while Pragati Life Insurance Company was the biggest loser, shedding 16.07 per cent. A new issue -- BBS Cables -- made its debut on Monday. The newcomer's share price leapt 803 per cent from its offer price of Tk 10 each on its first day on the DSE. babulfexpress@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:05

The University of Development Alternative (UODA) is going to hold its 6th Convocation on October 5 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka. The UODA authority invites its graduates for registration to participate in the ceremony. The registration form will be available at Registrar Office, UODA -2 at Dhanmondi in the city, said a circular signed by Registrar of the university Dr Iffat Chowdhury on Thursday. The graduates are asked to bring 2(two) copies of recent passport size color photograph.....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:05

The US economy saw strong jobs growth in July, helped by a wave of hiring in the hospitality industry. The Bureau of Labour Statistics said 209,000 jobs were created in July, which was more had been expected, reports BBC. The unemployment rate edged lower to 4.3 per cent, matching May's figure which was the lowest since 2001. Employment in food services and drinking places rose 53,000 - that sector has now added 313,000 jobs so far this year. Employment in health care and professional and business services also saw strong growth. President Donald Trump welcomed the report. In a tweet he said: "Excellent jobs numbers just released - and I have only just begun." The dollar gained ground after the report came out. It added a third of a cent to trade at $1.1843 against the euro. Wage growth continued to be sluggish in July, remaining unchanged at a 2.5 per cent annual growth rate. "The mystery continues to be with the labour market this tight, and the level of improvement we continue to see, that wages stubbornly stay at 2 per cent year-over-year wage growth. To me that continues to be the mystery of the jobs report," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. Wage growth is a key consideration for policy makers at the US Federal Reserve when considering whether to raise interest rates. "This [jobs report] should keep the chances of a December rate rise alive. The next rate rise really boils down to whether inflation picks up and this requires stronger wage growth," said Luke Bartholomew, a strategist at Aberdeen Asset Management. "While far from spectacular, especially given the further fall in unemployment, today's wage numbers are just about enough for now."  ....

Published at: 2017-08-05 00:00:05